France Albert Renédescribes what his islands are doing to preserve the environment
and promote sustainable tourism and other development, and calls
for a new international programme of action for the coming millennium

The environment is more than an agenda for small island states
such as Seychelles. It is a way of life and a matter of survival.
Every day we wake up to the harsh reality of the level of the
sea rising around us; every day our divers report new patches
of coral that have been affected by global warming.

While industrialized nations and industrial powerhouses debate
and procrastinate, small peoples who live by the coast have to
contend with minimal opportunities to make their voices heard,
let alone get a chance for redress. I speak here on behalf of
these voices in the wilderness who for years now have been coming
to international forums to stake their claim to a more equitable
approach by the international community to their problems as the
Earths problems  and who leave the table with their self-esteem
intact but their hopes shattered.

Seychelles is a shining example of how one tiny speck on the planet
has assumed its responsibilities for the environment and found
itself paddling its small canoe alone in the middle of the ocean.
Almost 50 per cent of the land area of our 115 islands in the
south-western Indian Ocean is devoted to conservation. This has
allowed our indigenous forests to mature and contribute to reducing
the impact of climate change.

In accordance with the Climate Change Convention to which we are
one of the founding Parties, we have carried out our Vulnerability
Assessment. More than 90 per cent of our population live on the
coastal strip and the relocation of this population away from
the threat of sea-level rise and other extreme weather conditions
would be a great financial burden for Seychelles.

With a little less than 0.8 square kilometres left of land available
for cost-effective development, and the remainder protected as
biodiversity reserves and for water catchment, our ongoing reclamation
on the main island of Mahé aims to secure precious land on the
basis of an environmental trade-off. Consequently, we have had
to adapt to sea-level rise by increasing the elevation of this
reclamation at considerable additional cost.

Our small nation has had to change many aspects of its way of
life in order to comply with our primordial environmental mission.
Our adherence to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has duly prompted us to
restrain our people from centuries-old delicacies and craft.

However, as industrialized countries continue to expand their
economic base they fail to reduce their emissions or commit resources
for adaptation to climate change. In Seychelles, sinks are over
five times more than our total emission, meaning that we small
islands will just have to sit and watch our sea level rise, contemplating
the persistent threat of ocean flooding.

Seychelles and the Seychellois people are determined to remain
active in the promotion of the Vulnerability Index as the United
Nations-recognized formula for financial assistance to small island
states. (For more information on the Vulnerability Index, see
Measuring vulnerability by Professor Lino Briguglio.)

It is therefore timely that I call upon the industrialized nations
to take note of what small vulnerable states such as Seychelles
are doing to promote a greener planet. We have succeeded in crafting
an inextricable relationship between our developing tourism industry
and our environment, thus linking the destiny and well-being of
our small population of 77,000 people directly with nature.

We have seen in this very forum strong advocates for the tourism
industry to become a serious and active partner in this mission.
Yet many of the major players of the industry continue to show
little regard for the situation and particular circumstances of
such paradise destinations, often oblivious to the sacrifices
the host people have to make in search of their chosen economic
equilibrium.

Crock of goldTo this end, we have devised a strategy to remind our people and
visitors that our only natural resource, our only gold so to
speak, is our nature.

The Seychelles Goldcard strategy has been devised to reinforce
our natural environment as the leitmotif of our tourism industry
by inviting our visitors to contribute directly to the very element
that constitutes their holiday and our existence and our environment.

Efforts to introduce the principle of this modest mandatory investment
on the part of every visitor resulted in the clamour of the tourism
industry, to the point where we have had to retract. Today, in
the light of the resistance which often greets avant-garde ideas
in this delicate field, we have revised this policy.

The Seychelles Goldcard thus seeks to invite all our visitors,
and other caring commercial entities that claim environmental
friendliness as part of their corporate policy, to play a role
in helping to preserve our little corner of the planet by becoming
a Friend of Seychelles and contribute on a voluntary basis.

We have crafted an inextricable link between our developing tourism
industry and our environment

The concern of the people of Seychelles has been amply demonstrated
by the fact that out of our very small and limited terrestrial
surface, we have offered two of our most precious natural assets
to the international community.

Aldabra, the worlds largest raised coral atoll, and the unique
and endemic Coco-de-Mer palm forest of the Vallée-de-Mai on Praslin
Island, are two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and Seychelles boasts
one of the finest marine national parks in the region.

International accountabilityThis gesture carries with it immense responsibility on our part
but also calls for international participation and assistance.

Britains Prime Minister Tony Blair, an earlier contributor to
this forum, declared after two successive holidays in our islands
that the environmental mission of Seychelles illustrated clearly
how natural events in the wider world affected local situations
and local initiatives.

In this very forum he has impressed on the international community
the need and duty for all of us to take a share of this responsibility.

Today I add the voice of Seychelles and the Seychellois people
to his and call upon the better-off nations of the world to seriously
engage in a programme for the new millennium, where actions speak
louder than words.